


Devolution

by ShyTortise



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, Transformation, eventual M/M, odd plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-19
Updated: 2013-06-03
Packaged: 2017-12-08 22:04:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/766539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyTortise/pseuds/ShyTortise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fear evolved, changed. It never simply was, and so it will never simply cease to be, but it can...revert.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clippity Clop

**Author's Note:**

> Remember all those fics where one character would mysteriously turn into a kitten? Yeah. This isn't QUITE that.

The lights are going out.

It’s a slow process, but children are slowly losing their belief in wonder, hope, dreams and memories.

Jack is actually a little more disturbed than he feels he should be.

“Listen, I’m sure it’s no big deal, probably just a generation gap, right?” Toothania’s wings flutter as she touches down after shooting off another barrage of addresses.

“I suppose, but it’s never been so much, not all at once.” Aster thumps his foot impatiently.

“I don’t know what you’re all worried about mates; it’s just another generation of bloody teenagers.” Tooth’s feathers fluff out.

“It’s not though! I’ve been reading the teeth and the memories are…they’re not as bright. It’s as if losing your teeth isn’t exciting unless you did it dangerously.” Her voice cracks slightly, eyes misty. “I got a tooth from a 13 year old that had been knocked out drinking from a beer bottle!” All the guardians stop at that. “A first premolar, knocked out at some house party…she didn’t even put it under her pillow!” North pats the fairy on the back awkwardly as Sandy offers her a cup of eggnog.

“Is true, naughty list is expanding daily but…it is not uncommon.” Jack frowns. Fewer people are enjoying snow, oh he still has believers, they all do. But as the lights flicker he can’t help growing restless.

“Whatever it is it needs to stop.”

&&&

He’s been listening to the parents, to the children. And Tooth is right, people are growing up too fast, twelve year olds are bragging about having sex and drinking, teenagers are acting as if the only part of their life that matters is the moment they’re in and while he’s all for having fun…there’s something almost sinister about the disregard for themselves and others.

And if there’s one person who knows sinister it’s Pitch Black.

Which explains why he’s in the woods, looking at the dilapidated bed and the hole under it. Bunnymund thought the whole thing was silly; North and Sandy had given silent permission and Toothania had begged him to find out just what Pitch was doing that was making this horrible mess.

“Black?”

Nothing. The woods aren’t completely silent, birds chirp somewhere in the distance and he’d scared a squirrel into tripping over itself earlier; but that’s strange in and of itself. If Pitch’s lair is nearby…then animals shouldn’t be.

Jack takes a breath to steady himself and slips under the bed and down the hole, the tunnel is smooth, almost slimy but when he lands there’s nothing on his hands but dust. He wipes them off on his pants, looking around.

The cages are empty, the chains silent and still. Here is the quiet he was expecting, but it’s not right.

“Pitch?” His voice disappears into the cavernous space, not even an echo returning.

Jack’s wind carries him to the globe, lights still shining, rotating slowly in time with the Earth.

“Come on Black, are you ignoring me?” He bangs his crook on Asia and the sound slams into the air. This time he hears a faint response. “I knew you were just being…” Words escape him as the sound gets closer.

It’s not Pitch’s irritated growling.

It’s not the whinnying of his ever so precious nightmares either.

It sounds like hoofbeats.

If a horse ever sounded like shadows slithering across a wall, or blankets creaking from being clutched too tightly.

“I don’t have time for your stupid dramatics Pitch, what are playing at?” He brings his staff up as the noise gets closer, a figure materializing on the nearest bridge.

It’s…a horse. Not a nightmare, it’s made of shadow not sand, the size of one of North’s overgrown deer; and it’s staring at him.

“Uh…” Well, glaring would be more accurate, and Jack recognizes a threatening stance when he sees it. “Look I’m not here to fight, I’m looking for Pitch.” The horse stops, raising its head a little, golden eyes gleaming in the dim light. “Do you know where he is?” The horse takes a few steps forward and Jack finds himself raising his staff defensively out of habit.

The horse stops and snorts at him before striding past him towards the globe.

“Oh great, you’re ignoring me too?” Jack doesn’t like being ignored; it brings back...unpleasant memories. “Come on pony, I just need to know where Pitch is.”  The horse goes still, its tail swishing side to side for a moment before suddenly it’s face is inches from his, the eyes level with his own, ears back and teeth bared.

He doesn’t move. “Alright, no calling you a pony I got it. How about-hey!” He jumps back as wickedly pointed teeth snap down on where his shoulder would have been. “That’s not nice.” The horse neighs and tosses its head before turning back to the globe and pressing its nose against the cool metal. Suddenly the lights flicker and Jack feels his stomach drop.

Then they’re back, but slowly changing color. Yellow, red, green, white, blue…then the pattern repeats. He hops back over, the wind boosting him up to perch on the low wall. It’s a great light show but he’s not quite certain exactly what it means until he realizes that some lights don’t turn every color.

“Is that…that’s who each kid believes in!” The horse stamps, shifting impatiently as if expecting something else; Jack leans closer to the globe. “Blue has to be me…so, yellow is Sandy, red is North….Green has to be Tooth.”  That leaves white for the cotton tail. “Heh like that show with the robots and that lady with the crazy hat.” There’s no pink but- a flicker catches his eye and he realizes that a few lights also turn black for a moment. “Pitch.” Suddenly the boogey man having a globe in his lair makes a lot more sense.

Jack looks at the horse who is watching him intently. “How does this help me?” He’s a little unprepared for the sudden rear as the horse crow hops forward,  hooves slamming onto the stone with a sound like glass breaking. Then the animal is turning, nickering and neighing as it stomps in circles around the globe before coming to a stop. “I don’t speak horse.” Gold eyes look silver in the dim light and Jack will deny to his dying day that he screams as the horse spins and kicks him off the ledge with its hind legs.

He doesn’t fall far and when he makes it back up to the wall the evil horse is still waiting for him. “Okay, you realize this means war?” The large animal huffs, clearly unimpressed; It turns to leave and screams instead as the ice it steps on sends it careening across a bridge and into one of the shadow filled archways. “Ha! Take THAT sucker!” He expects the beast to come charging out at him but instead there’s nothing but the silence that greeted him when he first arrived.

The hot puff of breath on the back of his neck is the only warning he gets and suddenly he’s dodging teeth and hooves as the horse chases him through the air.

He scrambles up the tunnel, heart pounding as the sound of an entire cavalry follows him.

The sunlight when he bursts up through the rickety bed is the sweetest sight he’s ever seen and he laughs, turning to face the shadow monster. “Alright, let’s see how you…” The horse looks different in the light.

What he’d thought was simply a lanky body looks near starved, the hooves are chipped and the skin is a gray that looks very familiar. Jack lands on the frosted grass, stalking forward until he’s practically nose to nose with it.

He’d recognize those eyes anywhere and he can’t believe he didn’t before. Now that he’s thinking of it: the movements are similar, and the teeth should have been a dead giveaway. He presses the crook of his staff to the horse’s chest as it…he, bares those pointed chompers again.

“Don’t try it…Pitch.”


	2. Ancient History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting help is good, but getting someone to accept help can be difficult.

After the whole ‘stopping Pitch’s attempt to take over the world’ thing, getting into The Pole has never been an issue. But try it when you’ve got the Lord of Nightmares in his horse form and oooh boy.

 

“No, Phil I swear this isn’t- Pitch stop that!” The fear of the elves is good for him, the grey skin is smoother, darker. His mane no longer hangs limply but is shadow and liquid and hair all at once, a writhing, flowing mass. Hooves the size of dinner plates come bare inches from squashing little bodies as they scatter, jingling frantically.

 

It’s not helping Jack’s case. “Alright he can wait in the stables or something but I need to talk to North.” The yeti relaxes but Pitch looks mortally offended, baring his teeth as Jack tries to turn him towards where the Reindeer sleep. “Look, either you wait there, or outside.” He realizes too late that he shouldn’t have given Pitch the choice as between one moment and the next the horse melts into a shadow and is gone.

 

North is…well, North.

 

“So…Pitch is animal? That’s not a problem, he’s been animals before.” Jack frowns and ignores the elf offering him eggnog.

 

“Yeah but he could always change back, right? He wasn’t stuck.” He’s clutching his staff so tightly his fingers are starting to go stiff.

 

“This is true. What makes you think he is being stuck?” Blue eyes, darker than his own are focused on him now and Jack can’t help being relieved that North is taking him seriously. They’re in Nicholas’ private room in the workshop and Jack wanders over to the newest ice sculpture, letting its flowing lines help focus his own thoughts.

 

“Think about it, I mean, when has Pitch ever passed up a chance to spew dramatic monologues?”  He can understand why, when people don’t believe sometimes you talk just so you don’t explode…and that’s not a thought he wants to dwell on. Shaking his head he keeps going. “He’s always got a snide remark or some snarky one-liner.”

 

“True.” North rubs his chin as he thinks. “So, it is not Pitch’s doing…but it is affecting him in a bad way, and in turn this is affecting the children?” Jack runs a hand through his hair and shrugs.

 

“I think so. The last time the lights started going out was when Pitch tipped the balance with the teeth, so it only makes sense that if they’re going out again…”

 

“Then balance has been tipped other way.”

 

If only the other Guardians could be so easily convinced.

 

“He’s a bloody menace at the BEST of times, and you want us to help him?” Aster is practically shouting and Jack groans as the baby tooth fairies chirp their agreement while Tooth flutters in front of the fireplace.

 

“He hasn’t been very active since the last time…” Her feathers ruffle as Bunnymund growls.

 

“Let him stay a stinking pony! We don’t owe him any favors.” Frost fights the urge to freeze the pooka’s feet to the floor.

 

“Maybe not but we owe it to the kids, and him like this is not a good thing!” He’s honestly not sure what he expected out of the Easter Bunny, but it wasn’t this boiling rage. He understands it a little, Pitch killed his clan, ruined his holiday more than Jack ever had and had come wickedly close to obliterating the Guardians.

 

“It’s the BEST thing! No more night terrors that have ‘em soaking their sheets. No more shivering under their blankets prayin’ that the rule is still in effect and the monster in their closet can’t touch ‘em.” They both jump as a bell jingles madly before the elf attached to it is dropped.

 

Sandy is glaring at them both as symbols flicker into and out of existence and while he doesn’t quite understand, Jack feels slightly chastised nonetheless. North hums softly, looking at the globe.

 

“It is a hard thing and we may not like it, but this is not about us. If it is for the good of the children then we must help.” Jack leaves them to talk about arranging time off. North is having to speed up production for Christmas but Bunny is free and it’s been fairly warm the world over, especially for late September. Tooth and Sandy are the only ones who are constantly working.

 

 He’s almost out one of the windows when a large hand lands on his shoulder. The shock of it sends him tumbling out before his wind sweeps him back up to face…

 

“North? Jeeze, tryin’ to kill me already?” The former pirate laughs softly.

 

“Sorry, I was meaning to tell you, Pitch can stay here while we work. It may not be as homey as his lair, but it will be dark.” The look on Jack’s face must make it clear that he doesn’t understand what North is getting at because the Guardian of wonder points to the sun that is slowly sinking below the horizon. “It will be Twilight for a little while, but Sunset is today.”

 

“Uh, isn’t sunset every day?” Now the laugh is big and much better than the small thing that came before it.

 

“Ah Jack, Sunset is once a year here, it will be dark until just before the vernal equinox, when the sun rises.” The snow is pale orange, shadows under drifts looking a kind of pastel green; almost like one of Bunnymund’s eggs.

 

“You aren’t worried he’ll try and ruin Christmas?” It is one of Jack’s concerns. He’s already known as the trouble maker and while Aster deserves to have his tail tweaked every now and then, North’s holiday is one of the lynchpins of wonder and joy. To have that ruined…

 

“Of course not! Pitch is concerned with his own survival. As it should be. If he tries to do harm now, as weak as you are saying he is…then it is his brain, not his form we should worry over.”

 

&&&&

 

The twilight makes it a little difficult to find the Fear King turned Nightmare, but Jack can hear him. Nickering and snorting as if…as if he were talking to someone. He crests the snow drift in time to see the large stallion turn to face him.

 

“Hey, you know, talking to yourself is one of the first signs of insanity.”  Pitch snorts and tosses his head at what looks like a pale haze. “The heck is that?” Jack can’t help be curious, the air around North’s workshop is usually ridiculously clear. He slides down the drift and sticks his arm into it, nothing; just a mist that doesn’t dissipate when he touches it. “Weird.”

 

Pitch whinnies and it takes Jack a moment to figure out that the boogeyman is…laughing. His hooves churn the snow, matting it down as he prances in place. Jack can’t help snickering at the sight.

 

“What’s up with you all of a sudden?” He flinches as Pitch squeals and bucks, turning to bite at the mist that is no longer there. “Okay…so you’re crazier than normal, good to know.” Silver eyes shoot daggers at him as the shadow king settles. “Come on, you’ve always been a little-hey!” He has to jump back as the wickedly pointed teeth make another attempt to maul his arm. “So rude, especially to someone who got you a place to stay until we’ve fixed…whatever this is.”

 

 It’s interesting to watch a horse try and flounce away dramatically, but when Pitch missteps and trips, hooves flailing wildly, into a snow bank he laughs until his stomach is cramping and his cheeks ache.  He stops when he realizes the Nightmare King is gone.

 

“Pitch?” The wind sliding across the ice and snow is the only sound. A gust of searing breath ruffles his hair and he spins around, seeing nothing but the slowly darkening expanse of the North pole. “Quit playing games horse man, I could end you right now.”

 

The air is still and Jack feels the hairs on the back of his neck start to stand up. He leaps to the side in time to avoid Pitch’s lunge, the boogeyman using his own shadow against him. The ice crackles from Jack’s staff and clings to the stallion’s flank, making him buck and whinny. Jack slams his crook into the snow, glaring.

 

“Alright, I get it, you’re pissed but we’re trying to help so quit acting like…” He trails off as Pitch freezes in place and for a moment he thinks he may have made that blast too powerful for the other being’s current condition. There’s a series of cracks and a startled curse escapes Jack just before Pitch begins to scream as his legs snap and bend in unnatural ways, his body seeming to melt, oozing onto the ground.

 

“Pitch!” Jack scrambles forward hands hovering over the quivering mass of boogeyman. “What’s going on? Are you dying?!” Silver eyes, bleeding into gold with pain, focus on him for a brief moment before they close and a wave of darkness ripples through the slime, catching Jack’s hands and yanking him into a world of pitch black.

 

And then there is light, and heat.

 

For a minute Jack isn't quite sure what's happened. The field of snow is gone, replaced by a cliff face carved into the likeness of temples he's only seen in Jamie's history books. Lush greenery surrounds the carving and in the far distance birds he’s never heard of chirp and cry, but the air around him reeks of animal musk and charred meat.

 

"Pitch?" He takes a step towards the intricately carved entrance and leaps back with a yelp as a gout of flame nearly sets his bangs on fire. The thing that comes out looks like a poorly made toy. A goat's head set on a lion's shoulder, it should look hilariously bad...but the lion's teeth are dripping flames and what he'd thought was a really funky looking tail whips up and over, like a scorpion's sting, to hiss; sprouting wicked looking fangs.

 

"What the... gah!" The wind pulls him out of the way as the giant snake's head spews a noxious liquid that eats away the rock and dirt he'd been standing on not a second before. The creature turns to track him and the way it moves is...wrong.

 

The angles are off, the heads set off center and the tail...snake, moves independently lunging forward as if it could rip itself off and attack him through sheer force of will. The goat...looks too smart. Silver eyes with the oddly slit pupil follow his movements too well, he's beginning to wonder if it will do anything at all when it opens its mouth...and the sky falls on him.

 

Bolt after bolt of lightning from the clear sky, striking too close for comfort, herding him towards the fire and acid. It's too much, too close and suddenly he's surrounded, all three elements closing in on him fast, too fast-!

 

Jack almost screams as he is suddenly pushed

 

back

 

by a gust stronger than his faithful wind,

 

slamming

 

into

 

 the

 

ground.

 

"None Shall Pass Me." The voice is booming, loud enough he has to cover his ears and still he can hear it, whispering through his fingers, coiling around to squeeze his brain. He looks up to see just what the Nightmare King has become and almost cannot comprehend what he sees. He, no, SHE is enormous, lion haunches regally curved, lit from behind by a city on fire; breasts framed by feathers lead to a face that is...and is not, Pitch Black.

 

Talons the size of cars slam down around him, pinning him to the ground. He can see giant wings, slowly unfurl as golden cat eyes blink at him from above. The stench of death is everywhere, what he'd thought was a moaning wind stutters and he realizes that it is people dying. Half eaten corpses litter the ground around him and his stomach roils.

 

"Answer My Riddle..." Jack howls as the pressure in his head increases with every word, the pain is immeasurable.  "...Or Die." He can feel the ground begin to crumble beneath him but he's in too much agony to move. The rock and dirt give way and he's falling, bouncing off boulders, then

down                     

              roughhewn

                                          steps

                                                           and-

 

It’s dark, and cold and Jack doesn't want to admit that he's afraid.

The walls rise up forever and the ground beneath his feet smells like dirt and old copper.

The corridors split, turn and twist.

He can't find his way out, but he must; because lurking in the dark is something that has burning eyes, scalding breath and footsteps like thunder.

The wind doesn't come when he calls, all he can do is run, run until he can barely breathe, until his legs refuse to carry him any further.

A low like the scream of a thousand souls jars him into motion-

 

-He slams into a snowdrift, gasping for breath as the mass that was Pitch fluctuates through other forms before settling on one that's mostly humanoid...it has too many eyes, no mouth and it's arms seem to taper into talons...but he can't be scared of it. Not when it's curled up, breathing just as hard as he is and trembling fit to shake itself apart.

 

"Holy...what was that?" A soft clicking noise comes from the ball of dark matter as it slowly uncurls and Jack sighs. "You know, eventually you're going to have to pick a form that can TALK." The eyes flash different colors as Pitch clicks again, hissing as he tries to stand in this new body.

 

Well...new for Jack, but if he's right then Pitch has been in this form before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three will probably take even longer. My apologies.


End file.
